Clinical photographic recordkeeping is commonly used by clinicians, dermatologists, and other physicians who take photos of their patients for patient photographic documentation. This documentation includes photos of the patients before receiving treatment and photos of the patients after receiving treatment. Photos can thus tell a great deal about a patient's condition at an instant in time, and serial photos taken over a period of time illustrate a patient's response to treatment. Also, the photos may be used in diagnosis and treatment planning. In some cases, the photos may be shared with other professionals for collaboration purposes.
One approach for clinical photographic recordkeeping is based on a clinician using a standard digital camera to take patient photos. The photos from the camera are then transferred to a computer system. Typically, the digital camera includes a camera card that is used to transfer the photos. If the clinician has electronic medical records (EMR) software on the computer system receiving the photos, then the photos can be clicked and dragged into the patient's chart.
The before and after photos of a patient are typically taken on different days. Many times, the before and after photos of the area being treated on the patient needs to be aligned to better highlight the effectiveness of the treatment received by the patient. Even with digital photography, the method of positioning the camera for the after photo of the treatment area to align with the before photo of the same treatment area can be tedious and time consuming.
Another approach to clinical photographic recordkeeping requires the use of expensive specialized photography equipment, which may range from $5,000 to $15,000, for example. Canfield Scientific, Inc. is a provider of such photography equipment that includes software for managing the patient's photos. For example, once a patient's photo has been taken, the photo may then be directly stored in the patient's chart. In addition, ghosting software may be available for aligning a new photo to be taken of the treatment area with an old photo of the same treatment area.
A drawback of the above approaches for clinical photographic recordkeeping is that the photos are typically stored where the equipment is located. If a clinician has multiple offices, and is meeting a patient at a different office from where the before photos were taken, then the clinician may not be able to access the before photos unless the patient's chart was transferred to the different office. This also presents a problem for collaboration on patient photos from other clinicians if the photos are not easily accessible.